Here’s one that leaves me a little mystified. The composition is nice, but who are these people? It’s hard to get a clear look at them, but they appear to get generally younger the farther right/down they go. Could these be the teachers and students at a school? An array of employees somewhere? Some sort of women’s club? The location puzzles me, too. It looks like they are standing around a garage. And while they are obviously posing for the camera, only a few seem to be smiling at the camera, as if somebody took a test photo without warning them. In any case, I think it’s a fun picture to look at, and it’s fun to guess.

Yes, I do. Not this one, of course. And I don’t want to make grand, pretentious statements declaring that my collection stretches back to the dawn of photography or anything. But I have some (including ones I’ve posted) from the 1860s, which would make them 150 years old or so, and I have at least a couple that seem to be from the 1850s. I sometimes stop and marvel at the things I’m holding in my hands, as much in amazement that they exist at all, as that I am fortunate enough to have them.